The World Serious
by Me
Summary: The Rugrats think they’re going to the World Series when Charlie Brown and the others babysit; they do have major Abbott and Costello-type fun. Lucy tries to coach Angelica in bossiness to be more like her, but this causes a major conflict of wills.


Author note: For her first few years, Charlie Brown's sister Sally was 5 years younger than Charlie Brown and the others. In the '80s and '90s she was only a couple years younger, as she was aged while others were constant. The latter is used here since Rugrats started in 1991. The incident Lucy mentions with her birthday party is from a "Peanuts" strip.

BTW, I don't know enough Rugrats to make this perfect, so for the sake of this story, figure it's in time sequence with the beginning, where Chuckie was 2 at the start, so by the time of the wedding, he should be almost three and have some words understood, though not nearly as many as Angelica.

No flames, please, as I say, someone who's watched them more can do them better, but I tried, with help by reading Rugrats Online. Someone else will have to do the Chuckie's 3rd birthday one, I've sent some ideas via PM to Jesus.Lives. As I say, this one's "Peanuts," too, so it doesn't have near as many of the Rugrats and how they say stuff as a straight Rugrats one, so I feel more comfortable doing just this one. Still, I could always move it to Peanuts – except there are so few on here with them as babies. Someone else wil have to do more, though; I've got so much going on a few more stories and then I might hang 'em up; though I've retired before :- )

The World Serious

Sally Brown, six, proudly carried several jars of pickles to the shopping cart. "Here they are."

"What are all those pickles for!" Charlie Brown asked incredulously.

The eight-year-old looked at the list Sally handed him - it had "Pickles" underlined several times.

"Mom had 'Pickles' in capital letters and underlined. She also said there would be several little kids living with us. I figure we must need lots of pickles." She thought for a moment. "Do babies like pickles that much?"

Charlie Brown scanned the aisle for their mother, to no avail. She was in the next aisle gathering diapers. "Sally, Mom and Dad signed up to get a little extra income by helping baby-sit out of town kids whose parents are coming to the inventor's convention near here. The family name who we're helping is Pickles."

"So they like pickles," she presumed as she sat the jars in the cart.

"No, Sally, I'm telling you, pickles is underlined because we're buying things for the Pickles."

"Oh. So, we already have enough pickles?"

Charlie Brown struggled to explain, then hastily said, "Yeah, yeah, we do," and Sally returned the pickle jars.

As if he wasn't confused enough by Sally, Stu Pickles was driving a minivan with his wife in the front and numerous Rugrats in the back - Angelica, Tommy, Dyl, Chuckie, and Kimi. Phil and Lil were being driving by someone else. Angelica was Tommy and Dil's cousin, but her parents would be very busy with work. Chuckie and Kimi's parentshad just married, and they'd just become brother and sister. They were on a short vacation and let the regular babysitters watch them and take them along.

To occupy time, they were listening to a tape.

"..I'm not asking you who's on second."

"Who is on first."

"I don't know."

"Who wanted to listen to that dumb thing," Angelica, three, asked fussily.

"You did," Stu reminded her. "You didn't want to hear any baby stuff."

"Well, why did you listen to me?"

"All right, pipe down, we're almost there. Phil and Lil are being put up by the Van Pelts, you, Tommy and Dylan are rooming with the Browns, and Chuckie and Kimi are being put up by the Schroeder family." He went on to discuss what they could do. "I understand they play baseball all the time."

"Can we play?" Chuckie asked.

He could understand the two-year-old's simple sentences well enough. "If you're good I'm sure they'll let you play. Just don't get in their way too much when you do, they plays serious baseball."

Once baby talk began anew, however, their conversation was not intelligible to the adults. "Did you hear that?' Chuckie asked Tommy. "This must be that World Serious they talk about."

"Wow. I bet I can be a big time slugger like Babe Roof."

"Dream on, you're nothing but a bunch of dumb babies. I'm going to steal the show," Angelica spouted. The adults could hear the three-year-old perfectly, and insisted that she be nice, if she wanted to get dessert that night.

Charlie Brown, Linus and Lucy Van Pelt, and Schroeder - who, comically, had the same first and last name - all gathered to meet the Rugrats. Once the babies said goodbye to Stu and Didi, and were shown to the Peanuts kids' homes, Angelica began spouting off. "Where's the cookie jar?" she snapped.

Sally overheard. "With that attitude, who cares? You won't get any."

"Besides, lunch is in ten minutes," Charlie Brown pointed out.

"So what? I always eat cookies for lunch anyway."

"No you don't," Tommy said. When Angelica told him to shut up, Mrs. Brown asked her to talk nicely. After some backtalk, Angelica found herself sitting in the corner.

"Was I ever that bad, Big Brother?"

"Well, Sally, you'd get carried away a little, you've always been a little emotional. Maybe she's the same way. Let's just be real nice to her, and she'll copy; that's how we taught you."

Sally sighed. "I guess so." In reality, she'd had to sit in the corner a number of times for outbursts when younger, because of that hyper nature. She was settled by now when talking to their parents, though she occasionally had outbursts that would get her sent to her room or in school to the principal for timeout and a lecture if needed. Once, she'd tried to leave school, she was so upset - except she forgot her locker combination.

After three minutes, Angelica was allowed up. "You know, I'm sure you can behave yourself," Charlie Brown told her very gently. "You'll get dessert if you do." Sally smiled proudly at her big brother until his next comment. "You should tell my mom you're sorry."

"Fine. I'll tell her I'm sorry." Angelica turned to Mrs. Brown and declared steadfastly, "I'm saying I'm sorry for calling you a name. But I'll never be sorry!'

"I do not accept that tone in this house."

"Well, too bad, I'm using it!" A moment later, Angelica was in the corner again. "Me and my big mouth."

"You were saying, Big Brother?"

"Okay, okay, look…maybe she's like Lucy. Just a bit of a fussbudget."

"Try a lot of a bus fudge it," Tommy said to Dylan at the table. "I hope we don't meet this Lucy. One Angelica is enough." Dyl nodded.

The family ate lunch with their three Rugrats in peace. Angelica loved to test limits, and now she knew if she wanted to have some privileges, she'd better be nice around the adults. They had been warned by Stu and Didi not to let her get out of control – they were tougher on her than her parents, much tougher at times. Now, Angelica knew her place. For a while.

However, once the Rugrats were playing outside, Angelica began bossing Tommy and Dyl and talking mean to them again. Charlie Brown and Sally walked outside after cleaning up and preparing for his baseball practice.

Sally backed up a little, intimidated by Angelica's demeanor, as the other Rugrats had joined them in the Browns' yard - with Mrs. Brown watching from the window - in their quiet, peaceful small town neighborhood.

Charlie Brown felt Sally's look. "Okay, okay…look, we'll take them all over to the ball field, and you and Snoopy play with them while we practice. It's fenced in so there'll be no problem."

"And what about Angelica?" Sally complained. "Am I supposed to make her stand against a fence for timeout if she's bad? I just finished first grade, I can't put anyone in timeout yet!"

"Look, don't worry, I've got it all figured out. I'm going to have Lucy try to tone her down; Lucy will be a good role model for Angelica."

Sally instantly felt her brother's forehead. "That's funny. You don't have a fever."

"What, you think I'm sick just because I said…" He thought a moment, and then felt his own forehead. "You know, now that you mention it…"

Angelica walked over to them. "Did I hear somebody call my name? I hope you're not going to expect me to play with babies while you play baseball." Sally rolled her eyes at Angelica.

"Oh, no, no. Actually, we were just saying, everyone in our neighborhood knows Lucy is the best there is. You're good at what you do, but Lucy's the best fussbudget in the world. You want to be the best, don't you?"

"Hmmmm." Angelica loved being a princess and bossing others around. She didn't know what a fussbudget was, so she asked, "Does that mean I can be bossy?"

"Sure it does. You'll just be better at it," Charlie Brown encouraged.

Angelica thought she was already great, but there were times when the babies didn't listen to her. Maybe, if she got some pointers, she could eliminate even those problems.

Sally showed her where Lucy was. Then, they all walked or – in Dyl's case - were carried to the ball field. The adults waited nearby while Sally and Snoopy watched most f them and Lucy and Angelica talked.

"I hear you're the world's biggest busfudgeit," Angelica spouted.

Lucy figured she meant fussbudget. "Who told you that?" she barked.

"Everybody here knows it."

Lucy scowled. "In that case, I'm going to have to open a deli to make enough knuckle sandwiches for them."

Lucy's glower was tempered by Angelica's glowing request. "I want to be just like you. Maybe then these babies will listen to me."

"Oh. Wonderful," she said, suddenly cheerful. "Let me watch how you handle things first. Then I can find your weak spots." Lucy commanded Charlie Brown on the pitcher's mound, "Practice without me!"

"That's okay. The way you play right field, we're used to it this way," Charlie Brown hollered back.

As Lucy glared daggers at the field, Angelica began bossing the other Rugrats around and insulting them. "Angelica, wait, wait," Lucy cried out suddenly. "That's not good at all."

"That's okay. I like being bad."

"But it's too much, you're overdoing it," Lucy countered fussily. "The key to being a fussbudget is knowing when to complain. You gripe at them all the time and call them babies, that's why they don't listen to you."

Angelica had never thought of it that way. She figured being bigger meant automatically being able to do that, and saying she was bigger would enforce it. "It is?"

"Sure. Besides, they know they're babies."

"Of course. And I'm way bigger than them. I'm way past three. I'm almost four!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Lucy said in a disinterested tone, not wanting to hear anyone boast but herself. "Now, I use the term 'blockhead.' And, I only use it when someone does something really dumb, not every time."

"Okay. That's easy. Block. Head. Blockhead. Let me try." She waited a few minutes, acting very peaceful, then suddenly shouted, "You blockhead, worms don't go in your mouth!" The shout caused Phil and Lil to start rolling, till they knocked Chuckie down as he was running.

"Wonderful! Now, another key is, how you treat your mom. This happened to me once. I was being just a little bratty, not too much," she said, trying to downplay how she'd behaved, "but enough my mother cancelled my birthday party. Now, let's say that happens and one of your friends suggests you apologize. What do you say?"

"You blockhead!"

Lucy threw out her hands. "No, no. You're not fussing about the problem. The problem isn't his being dumb. The problem is you don't want to apologize, right?" Angelica agreed most emphatically. "So, when my brother Linus suggested I apologize, I gave him a look, and shouted, 'I'd rather die!'" Angelica repeated her melodramatic tone. "Perfect!"

"Oh, boy. Now I'm really smarter than those babies."

"Right, but remember, not to their faces"

"But, they are babies."

"Yes, but you don't have to keep reminding them," Lucy complained again. "It gets boring after a while. Now, the last point. You should be good most of the time, so they respect you for what you say - you want to be as good as me, you can't have any faults."

"Be good! I knew there was a catch," Angelica said in a huff, with her hands on her hips.

Lucy was stunned for a moment. Suddenly, her student was being fussy at her. She couldn't stand that. "Okay, look, you want to do something that's semi-bad, at least?" Angelica nodded. "Come with me."

Meanwhile, Chuckie and Tommy were watching Charlie Brown's team. "Is that Who, Tommy?"

"I think so." Charlie Brown was standing on first base. "I think it's the same guy they said on the tape was on first base." Charlie Brown tried stealing a base. "Now he's What?"

"Who's what?" Phil asked.

"Him. On second base, now he's What," Tommy explained. Charlie Brown trotted back to first - they were practicing base stealing. "Now he's Who again," Tommy said, baffled.

"Who?" Lil asked.

"That's what I said. This game is confusing," Tommy said with a shake of his head.

Chuckie agreed. "I still don't know what you said."

"That's what I said. I said What, then Who again."

"I don't know," Chuckie said insistently.

"He's on third. Don't get us more confused than we are," Kimi pleaded.

Lucy and Angelica came back with a football. "Now, do like I told you. Invite one of your friends over to kick the ball."

"Sure. Oh, Chuckie?" Angelica said with a devilish grin as the held the football in place. "Come here and kick the football."

"I don't want to; I might miss."

Angelica wouldn't say anything to encourage Chuckie, which annoyed Lucy. Then, Tommy said, "I'll do it" and toddled over to Angelica, who pulled it away just as he lifted his foot, so he fell down.

"Ha, ha, you're so dumb," Angelica chided. "Nothing but a..."

"Angelica," Lucy screamed, "I told you, enough with the 'dumb baby' comments."

"Well, what do you want me to say?" Angelica complained bitterly.

"You're supposed to say something philosophical. You just pulled the football away, he already feels bad enough!"

"Well, I don't like playing your way, and I'm only three years old, I don't know how to make a Philly soft tickle. I don't even know what a Philly soft is!"

"That just means to make him think about why missing the football wasn't that bad, or why he shouldn't give up."

Angelica folded her arms. "That's just as dumb as the babies. Why should I make him feel good?"

"Listen, if you don't be bossy my way there's no use being bossy!" Lucy exclaimed. "I've refined my crabbiness till mine is the best there is."

Angelica and Lucy stared at each other and fumed. Linus looked at Charlie Brown from the infield dirt. "It's not working, is it."

"No, it's sort of like that science experiment. The irresistible force and the immovable object," Charlie Brown muttered.

Sally walked over to try and get Angelica to come play with the others. Meanwhile, the other Rugrats ran into the infield as Charlie Brown and his friends took a break.

"Hey, Chuckie," Tommy said, "you don't need a bat on the pitchers mound."

Chuckie looked at the bat he was dragging. "What if a ball comes at me?"

"You have to pretend you're a duck," Tommy explained, having heard the word "duck" when a ball was coming his way once.

Chuckie looked confused, and then said, "How is quacking going to help?"

"I wish I knew," Tommy admitted, shaking his head.

Kimi, meanwhile, saw Phil and Lil standing at second base. She tried to slide like the kids had done. "Eat dirt," she said, kicking dust into the air.

"No, we had some already," Phil informed her.

"Thanks for asking, though," Lil spoke pleasantly.

"I thought that was trash talk," Kimi explained.

"Only for big people."

Lil agreed with her brother. "They don't know what they're missing."

"Hey, get out of my infield," Angelica shouted.

Sally rolled her eyes. "Don't you know how to share?"

"Why should I?"

"Because it's polite," Sally informed her.

"And your point is?"

"Look, let's practice sharing," Sally suggested, grabbing some balls. "I have three baseballs here. I am sharing one with you so you can play with it." She gave it to Angelica. "Isn't sharing fun? It lets more people join in the fun."

Angelica took the other baseballs. "It's more fun when you give me all of them."

"That's not sharing, it's being selfish!"

Angelica harrumphed. "I can be a shell fish if I want to be!"

Sally sighed and walked away with wide eyes and a big frown. "I finally meet someone who messes up words like I do, and she drives me crazy otherwise."

"Chuckie, here's a smaller bat, so you don't hurt anyone," Linus said as he took his bat away from Chuckie and gave Chuckie a big, plastic bat that was hollow.

"I'm more worried about hurting myself with this thing," Chuckie said as he swung it. He twirled around a few times, while Linus tried to retrieve the hard baseballs from Angelica.

"I can play with whatever baseballs I want; I won't hurt myself!" She threw one in the air so Linus couldn't grab it. However, it came down and hit her in the head. "Ow!"

"Are you okay?" Linus asked. He rubbed it for her and gave her a small hug, as he could tell she was trying hard not to cry. "That hurt, huh? You only threw it up a couple feet, but still…"

"I didn't throw up."

"Well, what I mean is…" At a loss for words, Linus just rubbed her head a bit more for her and let her run off and play. He picked up the baseballs she'd dropped.

"Are you sure she'll be okay?" Lil asked Phil.

"She should be; she's got a hard head," was Phil's answer.

"That was too easy," was Lil's response.

"Gimme that," Angelica said, trying to grab the bat from Chuckie.

"It's mine, Linus gave it to me."

"Well, it's mine, now." She couldn't take it very easily because Chuckie held the handle, whereas she had the larger end. "Give me the bat, you blockhead!"

"Huh?" Chuckie let go of the bat, then touched his head. "It doesn't feel like a block. "Kimi, do I have any letters on my head?"

"Well, you have two eyes, but I don't think that's what that means."

"Oh, knock it off," Angelica insisted. She suddenly looked at the weapon she held. This bat makes me look even more powerful, she said to herself. And more power means I don't have to listen to Lucy anymore.

Lucy jogged part way and hollered, "Nice job, Angelica."

"I wasn't talk to you," Angelica said in a huff.

"Hey, I happen to be giving you encouragement," Lucy hollered. "You need to accept it!"

Lunus said, "Lucy's right. You shouldn't pass up the chance. Seeing encouragement from Lucy is like having the chance to see Halley's comet."

"See, even my brother agree-Hey!" Lucy stared daggers at Linus.

Angelica went around wielding the plastic bat. "Now listen here, I've tried to be nice like Lucy taught me…"

"Daddy says something like that's an oxymoron," Phil said to Lil.

Lil stared at Phil. "Who are you calling a moron?"

"Be quiet. Now listen, I expect you dumb babies…"

"That's not how I taught you," Lucy complained.

"I don't have to listen to you, I gots a bat now," Angelica explained.

"I'm the boss here and I say you do have to listen to me!"

Angelica and Lucy glared at each other as everyone stopped in their track. They were near first base.

"Who's going to win?" Kimi asked Chuckie.

"Probably." He scratched his head. "But which one is Who?"

"I don't know," Kimi said.

"Stay off of third base," Tommy commanded, "we're confused enough already."

"What are we confused about?" Phil asked.

Lil put her hands on her hips. "Haven't you been listening, we're not confused about what, we're confused about Who."

I don't know."

"Third base!" Tommy screamed.

Meanwhile, Angelica and Lucy jawed at each other for several minutes, getting angrier and angrier. Then, Lucy grabbed the bat, and scuffled with Angelica for it. Finally, Angelica bopped her over the head with it, and Lucy proceeded to slug her as she would Linus.

Lucy looked on in horror as Angelica ran away sobbing large tears. Sally quickly ran over to her and let her cry in her lap, as the other Rugrats gathered around her on the mound. She wasn't bleeding, but Lucy had hit her on the side of the head and knocked her over, too. It would hurt for a minute or so.

Lucy, meanwhile, sulked guiltily over to the bench and sat, head in her hands.

"Now nobody's on first," Tommy said, looking at the base.

Chuckie wasn't sure what happened, but, "Maybe neither of them was Who."

"Of course not – didn't we say that round headed boy was Who?" Phil asked Lil.

"I don't know."

"Third base!" Everyone shouted in unison.

Meanwhile, Charlie Brown and Linue stood near the spot Linus usually played between first and second. "It's a shame. As nasty as Angelica was being, it shouldn't have ended like that, Charlie Brown."

"You're right." He smiled briefly as he saw Sally cuddling Angelica. "She's good at other things besides wearing white shoes."

"Huh? Oh you mean as a nurse. Yeah, she is."

"Well, you better go talk to Lucy."

"Me! Why me!"

"You have some baby teeth to lose yet?" They both shook their heads somberly. "All right, you can explain your sister to Angelica a little better, and Lucy might listen to me more than you right now – if anyone." Charlie Brown trodded slowly over to Lucy, unsure of what to say.

"Hello, sweet babboo," Sally said warmly. "See how I comfort someone who's hurt? I hope you'd do that for me."

Linus knelt beside Angelica, as the other adults stood around. The adults could sense the children were trying to solve things themselves so decided not to butt in.

"Sure I would Sally. Because you're my friend; though I'm not your sweet babboo." To Angelica, he said, "Look, you and Lucy both seem to like being the boss more than being friends. But, the important thing is, you can still like each other."

"But she hit me!"

"That's true. But, she clobbers me sometimes, and I get over it." He thought a minute. "Sometimes I can't stand her. Sometimes I'm really scared of her…"

"Sounds familiar," Chuckie said. Tommy nodded.

"…but the point is, we work through that, and we stay…well, acquaintances. But, you know what? We're closer than we've been. And, at this pace, by the time we're in our 80s, we'll be good friends."

"H-how long is that?"

"Well…probably too long. It'll come way before then. And, it can for you, too. Okay?" After a minute, she agreed, and Sally and he started talking about other things.

Meanwhile, Charlie Brown was trying to get Lucy to see that she had to apologize. "I know I have to, you blockhead," she complained after a while. "Don't you realize how long it's taken me to build up this reputation? And then to clobber a little girl, I can't stand what I did. You're a boy, and you're not half my size like she was. When I do it to you I don't mind like this!"

"Boy, I thought Chuck would put his foot in his mouth first," Peppermint Patty, one of their friends and a player on an opposing team, said to her friend Marcie.

The only good part of that was, Charlie Brown either didn't notice was didn't care; probably more the latter. "Well…okay, look, Lucy, the important part is, she's never going to want to be the world's best fussbudget unless you make up."

"He didn't take too much longer, Sir," Marcie commented.

"Stop calling me 'Sir.'"

"Don't you get it – I feel bad that I did that, okay!" Lucy shouted. "Clobbering little kids isn't part of being a fussbudget!"

"Then go over there and tell her you're sorry, Lucy!"

Lucy fretted. Someone had tried to steal her spotlight, had tried to boss her around. She'd dared to think Lucy wasn't entitled to be the boss. And, she'd kept getting in Lucy's face about it.

She hated coming down from that lofty position, but she knew she had already done that by slugging Angelica. Angelica might not feel bad yet about being mean, but Lucy did, at least. She'd never been downright mean, anyway, like Angelica was being; she was always just really crabby. But, Angelica wouldn't learn very well with Lucy just hauling off and slugging her.

After a few moments, Lucy stomped over to where Angelica was sitting in Sally's lap and talking to Linus and Sally, and knelt in front of them. "Look …" She stared up at the others. "Well, don't you all have something better to do?"

"It would be hard to play baseball since you're on the pitcher's mound," Schroeder noted.

"Oh, all right!'

Angelica said lowly, "I know what you want to say. 'I'd rather die!'"

"No…that's not what I want to say." Lucy tried hard to hold her feelings in, but hearing Angelica thought that she wouldn't want to apologize hurt even more. "Look, what I did was wrong. And, I'm s- I'm s-." Even though the other kids – besides Sally - were at least five feet from her now, she hollered at them to step back and not listen. "I'm sorry, Angelica," Lucy said lowly. More normally, she said, "I just got mad because I'm so used to being the only boss. And, I know that's something you're used to, too. I should have been the bigger kid and tried to help in a nice way. I think it's what Charlie Brown hoped I would do." Glaring at Charlie Brown, she added, "But he'd better never say it."

"Now, do you have something to say to Lucy?" Linus asked.

"Do I have to?"

Sally suggested, "I could just tell you both to sit in the corner. I didn't think I could do it, but the way this has gone…"

Angelica didn't like it one bit when people threatened to punish her – that was something else she wasn't used to at home, though Stu and Didi did it. She tended to listen when bigger people said they would punish her. "Can she do that?" Angelica asked.

Several adults nodded.

Finally, Angelica sighed. Sally was bigger – she figured she must have some authority. "I'm sorry I hit you with the bat, Lucy. And, I'm sorry I was being so mean to my friends." She asked Sally, "Are you happy now? 'Cause I don't want to tell them I'm sorry to their faces."

Sally said what she said was fine, and let her up.

Linus quickly told Sally, "You know, the way we helped keep the others safe, then here we talked about how her friends feel, and what we told Angelica about how everyone makes mistakes, and when you threatened timeout but weren't too harsh, well, I think we did really good."

"Thank you," Sally said with obvious love in her eyes. "I think you'd make a good dad, too, by the way."

Linus quickly caught his blunder. "Er, what I mean is…well, what I said, it wasn't a proposal of marriage or anything …"

"Don't worry, sweet babboo. Despite your disclaimer, I know what you really think of me."

Linus rolled his eyes. "Oh, brother! And, I'm not your sweet babboo." Sally's look said she didn't believe it.

"Can we go back to playing baseball now?"

"Don't you think you better ask Tomorrow?' Kimi pointed at Sally and Linus, the last to leave the mound.

"I want to find out today," Chuckie explained, exasperated.

"Well, that's Today," Kimi retorted, pointing at Schroeder.

Lucy could tell Angelica didn't like their babbling, so she said, "Come on, let's go play right field and look at the flowers and stuff out there together."

After a few moments, Linus looked out at Lucy. "Hey, Lucy. I'm proud of you."

"Oh, yeah? Well, when this day is over, everything goes back to normal!"

Schroeder walked the ball out to Charlie Brown on the mound. Charlie Brown said, "Schroeder, I never thought I'd say this, but I'm glad to see Lucy in right field." Stopping a second, he said, "Maybe I better have Sally feel my forehead again."

Meanwhile, the other Rugrats were playing in the fenced in portion by the swings. "I'm just glad Angelica's having fun playing with Lucy and not bossing us around," Tommy said.

"Yeah, but isn't she supposed to be playing baseball out there?" Kimi asked.

Chuckie turned to his sister and said, "Maybe they're as confused as we are about the players."

Phil watched as several players took a break from their hardest practice, and Snoopy left his shortstop position. "Lil says it should be pretty simple, though. And, Angelica's older than us. She should understand it."

"Well, it is simple. For instance, when they tossed the ball around the infield, Who had the ball at the end."

"Who?" Phil asked Lil.

"Exactly. That's all there is to it."

As Linus grabbed a ball at second base, Phil retorted, "Oh, and what's going on with the ball now?"

"Right, you've got it!" Lil thought that since the man at second had the ball, Phil was right – even though Phil was only asking a question, not giving an answer.

A batter hit a lazy fly ball to left as Snoopy ran toward them. Phil, by now, was totally flustered. "Okay, next there's a long fly ball to the left fielder. Why? I don't know, he's on third, and I don't care!"

"What'd you say, Phil?"

"I said I don't care!" At that moment, Snoopy jumped into his lap and gave him a kiss.

Lil pointed at him and said, "Right, that's their shortstop!"


End file.
